The invention generally relates to the field of computer programs and systems, and specifically to the field of computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), modeling, and simulation.
A number of systems and programs are offered on the market for the design of parts or assemblies of parts, such as those provided under the trademark CATIA® and provided by Dassault Systemes, S.A. These so called CAD systems allow a user to construct and manipulate complex three-dimensional (3D) models of objects or assemblies of objects. CAD systems thus provide a representation of modeled objects using edges or lines, in certain cases with faces. Lines or edges may be represented in various manners, e.g. non-uniform rational basis-splines (NURBS).
These CAD systems manage parts or assemblies of parts of modeled objects, which are mainly specifications of geometry. In particular, CAD files contain specifications, from which geometry is generated. From geometry, a representation is generated. Specifications, geometry, and representations may be stored in a single CAD file or multiple CAD files. CAD systems include graphic tools for representing the modeled objects to the designers; these tools are dedicated to the display of complex objects—the typical size of a file representing an object in a CAD system ranges, but is typically on the Mega-byte order of magnitude for a part. An assembly may contain thousands of parts, and an assembly file is correspondingly large. A CAD system manages models of objects, which are stored in electronic files.